Voorbereid op reis? check reisloket

Reisverslag Week 11!!!

Week 11!!!

Monday November 10 2014. DAY 71.

Today was my day off and I slept in until 10am, because I was quite tired of yesterday. When I woke up I decided to get dressed, have breakfast and go to Oxford to finally return the T-shirt. It failed, unfortunately, because my card number wasn’t the same as the card number that was used to pay the T-shirt. I had to leave it that way. Nothing I can do about it anymore!

I got on the tube and went to Regent Park. It is extremely big, and even before I entered the park I already saw three squirrels! They are very calm around people, just like pigeons in cities they just walk up to you and think you carry food around. The park, for as far as I’ve seen it, was beautiful! It was very big, so I didn’t see all of it.

When I went back I was quite hungry, so I decided to get lunch at the Pret a Manger around the corner. I went back to the hostel where I skyped with Kevin and ate my lunch. I skyped with mum too. I miss her already!

I was very tired throughout the rest of the day, but I told Enrico (of the night shift, who I had a chat with yesterday) that I would hang out again tonight, when he would be on for work again. I spent most of the evening helping Adele out here and there, have dinner, and chat with a woman from London, and a woman from Australia. It was a lovely chat!

Eventually I decided I was too tired to stay up for meeting Enrico, so I went to bed at 10.

Tuesday November 11 2014. DAY 72.

I worked again today. I started at 8am, and I worked with Bob. We get along quite well and had fun together. The breakfast shift went by slowly, even though I started 1,5 hour later than Bob. I’m also tired, and I feel as if there is a flu coming up... I’m a bit homesick too. I want to go home and arrange things with the apartment, see my friends and family again... Oh well, I’m trying to enjoy my last few weeks here in England!

When I was working I saw the guy who kissed me on the cheek again, and I told him that I wasn’t really happy with that. He apologised and told me he just meant it as a ‘hello’ or ‘goodbye’. I understand that... We do that too... But only with family a friends...

Alberto and Justyna, two colleagues, told me it was quite normal to them to kiss strangers when you met them. They are from Argentina and Spain. I don’t know what England is like with that. I asked Bob, but he wasn’t quite sure either. He said that he did that with his family and friends, and sometimes strangers. But he didn’t know whether it was a customary thing to do.

I wanted to take a nap after work, but I decided to work on school instead. I stayed in the room, working on my journals and such, until about 6.45pm. I watched an episode of Sleepy Hollow, took a shower and then I got myself some dinner downstairs.

I spoke to the woman from Australia again, and it was great fun. She was a bit drunk, which was funny, and she kept telling me about the John Sloane museum and how weird it was. I think I’ll check that out with Karlijn and her cousin when they are coming over.
I also met the guy who kissed me on the cheek; he wanted to do it again (even though it was only yesterday when I told him I didn’t want that) and I prevented him from doing that, clearly telling him that I did not want that.

I also hung out with Enrico again, and this time a girl named Caterina was there too. It was a lot of fun and I went to bed at 1am. I have to work tomorrow... We’ll see if I can wake up!

Wednesday November 12 2014. DAY 73.

I woke up at 6.15am, took a shower that was a bit too long, and got five minutes late at work. Bob didn’t really notice, or at least didn’t say anything about it. It was okay, I guess. I also met Jenny. She worked with me and Bob behind the bar this morning. She’s very nice! And Welsh, like Nigel 

I had great fun with the customers today. I had a lot of chats, and I’ve heard from many people that they think my accent is really good. I personally thing my accent has improved as well. I know where to stress the words, how to communicate better, and how to explain things better. My vocabulary range is wider, and I feel a lot more secure about my English than I used to be.

Tom, who was deputy manager today, asked me whether I wanted to supervise the trip to the Lion King musical tonight or not. Of course I want that! It means I can watch the musical for free!  It basically means that I have to pick up the group of people, give them their tickets and make sure everybody is complete.

When we cashed up, had the meeting and finished work, I went upstairs to arrange a few things. I registered me and Kevin in the municipality of Zwolle via internet, and made a list of things that I still need to arrange for moving out. I don’t like to be unprepared.

I also got an email from Enrico with a set-up for an email to his doctor. It’s in English, but it needs revision and Enrico asked me to help him with his English. It’s good, because this way I can focus on starting to teach again. I revised his email and sent it back. I hope he’ll understand my comments and will be able to revise it to the way it’s supposed to be. I find it difficult to leave comments with motivation for him to search for the correct answer, instead of just handing it like: “It’s supposed to be ‘this and this’, because...”. Something to work on!

Tonight I’m going to see the Lion King! I’m very excited and a bit nervous. I hope I can get the group together in time, and won’t lose anyone!

Thursday November 13 2014. DAY 74.

Had to get up early to get back to work. The morning was quite busy, but it was alright. During my shift I got a sorry call from Tom, about yesterday evening. He was the one asking me if I could surveillance the group to the theatre, and he was the one telling me everything would be alright and it would be the easiest thing to do, but somehow it wasn’t alright and it wasn’t so easy.

When I got to YHA London Central to pick up the invoice to trade for the tickets at the box office in the theatre, and to pick up the people to bring to the theatre, it seemed that the invoice wasn’t there. The employees at YHA London Central told me to tell the people at the box office that I was from YHA and I had to mention a name, then they would give me the tickets.

I got at the box office and told them what I was supposed to tell them, but they didn’t have the tickets. So it took me half an hour of debating and persuading, and calming down the people outside waiting to go in, and listening to how angry they were, before I finally got the tickets. It seemed that the tickets had already been sent to the hostel, hence the reason why there was no invoice. However, nobody at YHA London Central could tell me, and nobody at the box office told me as well. When they found out, they reprinted the tickets and let us in, but we were five minutes late in the musical so we missed the opening. I felt a lot of pressure seen the fact I was sitting in the middle of the people who were angry with me for not retrieving the tickets in time, and having them miss the first five minutes... But the musical was great.

Anyway, Tom told me he was sorry about it all and he said he would scream a bit at the people responsible for this, to make it all up to me. It was quite hilarious.

I skyped with my mother, Karlijn, and my father later that evening, while enjoying my beef lasagne!

Friday November 14 2014. Day 75.

I slept until 10am and took a shower, which caused me to miss breakfast by 15 minutes so I set out to look for that nice breakfast place where me, mum, Yvonne and Dieke went to, but I couldn’t find it so I went to Pret A Manger instead.

I worked from 12 till 8.30pm, which went by pretty fast. I then took a shower and skyped with my father before going to sleep early.

Saturday November 15 2014. DAY 76.

I was working a day shift, and Karlijn and Sanne showed up. Karlijn is one of my best friends, and Sanne is her cousin. They are going to stay in the Royal Hotel at Tavistock Road, which isn’t too far away from the hostel.

They sat with me to have a drink and then left to find a MacDonald’s. I worked until 3.15pm, and then Karlijn and Sanne came over to pick me up. I went to see where Karlijn and Sanne are staying, and the hotel looks really nice! We also walked around at the Brunswick Market near their hotel.

After spending some time at the nice shops and market place, we went back to my hostel to have dinner together. Enrico picked is up from hostel and took us to the pub in Camden. It was great!
Sunday November 16 2014. DAY 77.

We met up in the morning, after we had breakfasts at our own hotels. We set out to go to Camden Market by tube. Karlijn and Sanne loved the market! We took a few hours to walk around over the market and I showed them around. We ate churos and fish and chips, and saw each detail we could find.

When we were walking back to the tube I saw a guy on the street, who was trying to sell his CDs. His name was Kig David, and his music was quite nice! I didn’t have any money on me that day, so I couldn’t buy anything. The money he’d earn was going to charity, so it was all for a good cause 

After Camden Market we went to the Tower of London. Sanne and Karlijn wanted to see the poppies, but the remembrance day was November 11, so they were already taking out all the poppies. The poppies were only half there. Karlijn really focussed on the history of Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII, so she explained to me so many things about all Henry’s wives, and about Anne’s death. Really interesting, and I love the way Karlijn tells me all these things.

We made an attempt to go to Spitalfield Market, but they were already closing down. So instead we went back by tube and ate at MacDonald’s at King’s Cross St. Pancras. I went to bed quite early, because I was so tired of everything!